Kids’ summertime fun turned horribly tragic in Connecticut Wednesday when a teenage girl who was tubing behind a motorboat was pulled into its propellers and killed.
The 16-year-old victim and a friend were enjoying the ride near Greenwich Point when the tow rope became ensnared in a propeller and the girls were reeled into the whirling blades at about 2 p.m., a Greenwich Harbor source said.
The victim suffered a fatal injury when she hit one of the two outboard propellers on the boat, which was being driven by another 16-year-old.
The second girl, also 16, suffered serious leg injuries, according to the Greenwich Police Department.
The commodore at the nearby Old Greenwich Yacht Club said the club’s launch driver found the girls in the water after hearing their desperate cries.
The launch driver rushed them to the yacht club.
“We are feeling terrible,” said commodore Tom Drake. “This is a horrible tragedy, and our hearts go out to the girls and their families.”
The surviving girl was at Stamford Hospital.
“It was a horrible accident,” one law-enforcement source said.
“If more care was taken, it would never have happened.”
One eyewitness described the scene as “gory” and said there was blood all over the boat.
A harbor source said, “This is what happens when inexperienced people go boating.”
The girl who died attended Greenwich HS, as do her injured friend, the boat driver and a passenger. None was identified.
The superintendent of Greenwich Public Schools said the tragic teen was to begin her junior year in September.
“We are mourning the devastating loss of one of our Greenwich High School students,” Superintendent William McKersie said in a statement.
“The Greenwich public-school community is ready to support the girls involved and their families in every way possible.”